The present invention relates to an absorbent article such as sanitary napkins, ultra-thin sheet napkins for absorbing menstrual blood, vaginal discharge or the like and incontinence bladder control pads, and to an absorbent article including standing gathers which improve fitting to the user's body and has a cushioning properties.
In the related art, those having an absorbance member formed of cottony pulp or the like interposed between a liquid-impermeable back sheet such as polyethylene sheet or polyethylene sheet laminated non-woven fabric and a liquid-permeable top sheet such as a non-woven fabric or liquid-permeable plastic sheet are known as absorbent articles such as ultra-thin sheet napkins, sanitary napkins, incontinence bladder control pads.
The absorbent articles of this type have been improved repeatedly, and various countermeasures for preventing leakage of body fluid have been taken. As one of the countermeasures for preventing leakage of body fluid, a technology for forming standing gathers which serves as a barrier for side leakage along both sides on the surface side exists. As regards the standing gathers, solid gathers of T-shape in cross section having a planar skin-contact surface so as to improve the fitting to the user's skin and ensure prevention of leakage have been proposed.
For example, in Patent Document 1 shown below, as shown in FIG. 14, there is proposed an absorbent article N including a liquid-permeable surface layer 50, a liquid-impermeable back surface layer 51, a liquid-retainable absorbent layer 52 interposed between these layers, leakage preventing walls 54 provided so as to extend upright from the vicinities of left and right side edges of the absorbent layer 52, and a leakage preventing groove 55 having a predetermined shape formed on the surface layer side of the absorbent layer 52, in which the leakage preventing walls 54 each include a base wall portion 56, outwardly extending portion 57 and inwardly extending portion 58 extending respectively inwardly and outwardly of the absorbent article from the upper portion of the base wall portion, the outwardly extending portion 57 and the inwardly extending portion 58 each include an elastic member 59 disposed along the longitudinal direction thereof, and the outwardly extending portion 57 is positioned above the absorbent layer 52 and outwardly of the leakage preventing groove 55.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2002-656